The Rhetoricity of Ovid’s Construction of Exile and the Poeta Structus Exsulis (With a
Special Addendum Concerning Alexander Pushkin)

The Rhetoricity of Ovid’s Construction of Exile and the Poeta Structus Exsulis (With a
Special Addendum Concerning Alexander Pushkin)

Author:

Toman, Samantha

Abstract:

In Ovid’s Tristia and Epistulae Ex Ponto, the Latin poet constructs an elaborate poetic
persona endowed with its own agency, which evokes the sympathy of the reader through
engaging in various modes of discourse. This inquiry examines, in depth, how Ovid fashioned his
poeta structus through complex modes of discourse and from making use of conventions of
genre, namely elegy and epic. These modes of discourse are identified and explored, as well as
Ovid’s markedly hyperbolic treatment of the landscape and inhabitants of his exilic outpost of
Tomis on the Black Sea. The implications of the exile being surrounded by the Sarmatian and
Getic languages are also expounded upon, both in the way the poeta presents the putative effects
of the language of the other, as well as the evidence of linguistic evolution in the ‘actuality’ of
Ovid’s situation. A comparison is drawn between Cicero’s notion of naufragium, ‘shipwreck,’ and
Ovid’s refinement of the term, as well as the rhetorical treatment of exile as a form of death by
both authors. Lastly, a special addendum takes a fresh look at Alexander Pushkin’s nuanced
reception of the Ovidian poeta structus in his own exilic poetry from 1820-1825.